On April 13, 2026, Baptist Press announced that Evan Lenow would be the new president of their beleaguered Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). They’ve struggled for years to find one that seems to satisfy them, but this time the candidate might last more than a few years. That’s because this time, Evan Lenow is a member of the faction that has coveted rulership of the ERLC for years now.
Today, let’s meet Evan Lenow, and see why this hiring is important as a sign of the SBC’s ongoing decline spiral.
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SITUATION REPORT: ERLC hires a new president, Evan Lenow
On April 13, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) confirmed Evan Lenow as their new president. He’ll be their third president since Richard Land quit-before-he-could-be-fired for being a racist and plagiarist.
This time around, this new president is a member of the same faction as Richard Land. I’ve dubbed them the Old Guard. The two presidents between them are all from the other faction, which I call the Pretend Progressives. (We’ll go over what the teams mean in a minute.)
The ERLC is an important part of the SBC’s overall mission of cultural capture. Its staffers walk the halls of power in legislature, meet with the President, and contribute legal opinions to court cases that impact their culture war goals.
Despite its importance, for a few years now the Old Guard has worked tirelessly to defund and disband it. Their reasoning is simple: They didn’t want Pretend Progressives in charge of it. If the Old Guard couldn’t have it, then it needed to go.
This win is extremely important for the Old Guard. With it, they’ve captured all of the major branches of SBC power. But the win might be pyrrhic indeed. The denomination has been hemorrhaging members for years now, and there’s no indication that’ll stop just because the hardliners technically own the denomination. In fact, the last time the hardliners promised that their control would ensure growth, the opposite happened (though they don’t talk about that much anymore)!
Today, we’ll untangle the web of factional infighting that led to Evan Lenow’s appointment, and then we’ll chase down what it means.
First, let’s meet Evan Lenow
Since Lenow will likely remain in office for a while, let’s meet him first. Then, we’ll establish which faction he’s in. That’s important, because the faction members don’t announce their affiliation. They haven’t ever even formally titled their respective teams.
Evan Lenow is a 47-year-old native of Memphis, Tennessee. He’s a lifelong Baptist. He got his M.Div. and Ph.D in Theological Studies from an SBC seminary, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS, run by Danny Akin). Lenow’s professional career has largely consisted of positions in evangelical colleges in the Deep South. Additionally, according to his Amazon blurb, he’s held the Bobby L. and Janis Eklund Chair of Stewardship at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he’s worked for the Land Center for Cultural Engagement.
On the side, he’s also worked for the ERLC as a researcher since 2012, and he’s written books about evangelical doctrine and the culture wars. His books include:
- Ethics as Worship: The Pursuit of Moral Discipleship (2021), which asserts that the evangelical culture wars are all supported by Bible verses.
- Biblically Sound: Embracing Doctrine for Life (2014), which tries to paint the study of evangelical theology as essential for retention of converts.
- Biblically Correct: Engaging Culture with Truth (2013), which aims to help evangelicals deal with the emotional fallout of being moral scolds and getting rejected for their high-control behavior.
We’ll be returning to those books. For now, know that this background tells us exactly which faction claims Evan Lenow.
Sidebar: The faction teams
The Old Guard are the denomination’s hardliners. Its members are the successors to the SBC’s civil war crisis of the 1970s-1990s, which they call the Conservative Resurgence. According to one of its made men, Al Mohler (leader of another SBC seminary today), hardliners back then deliberately started the crisis to stop female pastors from leading SBC churches. To win, the architects of that civil war stressed inerrancy and literalism, which is the view that the Bible contains no errors whatsoever and is literally true in every way.
Today, these hardliners still use inerrancy to fight the idea of women pastors. But they’ve added a telling side platform: racism and sex abuse are issues for churches to deal with, not something the denomination needs to address. Instead, the denomination itself should only worry about evangelism, which should go great now that they’re in charge.
The other faction, the Pretend Progressives, aren’t very different at all from their enemies. (It’s funny because the Old Guard’s snarl words for them include “SBC elites,” when the Old Guard’s got a lot more SBC royalty in it than the “SBC elites” could ever dream of having.) Pretend Progressives are softer on women pastors, tacitly allowing them while tapping the sign containing the denomination’s rules against them. They make mouth-noises about racism and sex abuse, but somehow none of it turns into less systemic racism and safer churches.
But they persist in making the noises. Maybe they know that just over half of the flocks want less racism and safer churches. Indeed, Pretend Progressive candidates and causes consistently win elections at the denomination’s Annual Meetings each summer. Since about 2018, when the factions firmed up, Pretend Progressive candidates have swept the presidency.
They’ve also taken ERLC presidency spots, as we’ll see soon.
Figuring out faction members
First, to figure out which faction Evan Lenow calls home, we examine his background. That part’s easy. The SBC seminary system, which graduated him, is the prime stronghold of the Old Guard. Thanks to the Conservative Resurgence, that faction’s leaders now run all of them.
But Lenow’s position at the Land Center also gives us hints. If you suspected it’s named for Richard Land, then you’re correct. It was established in 2007 as the Richard Land Center, five years before the racism and plagiarism controversies landed. Richard Land, of course, is an Old Guard stalwart, and he’s still the Center’s Board Chairman. Even after his humiliating loss of the ERLC presidency, he remains a highly influential figure in SBC politics. So the Land Center kept its name, mostly.
Additionally, we can look at the recommendations of Lenow’s books to establish his ties. The 2013 book includes praise from Paige Patterson, one of the architects of the Conservative Resurgence, as well as Steve Gaines. In 2016, Gaines ran against J.D. Greear for the SBC presidency (which Greear very barely lost). Lenow’s 2014 book contains praise from David Allen, who served as a dean at SWBTS from 2004-2022, overlapping with Lenow’s time there from 2007-2019.
By the time the third book came out, Lenow had a lot more ties to the Old Guard. The “Editorial Reviews” section of its product page on Amazon contains a multitude of Old Guard names (including that of Karen Swallow Prior, who hadn’t yet been canceled over likely-false accusations that she’d leaked an abuse-filled book by the wife of an Old Guard lackey, Tom Buck). These names include various SBC seminary leaders, past colleagues from Mississippi College and the Southern schools around it, and even an instructor from Liberty University!
Finally, we turn to the allies recommending him for his new role. Richard Land himself shows up here. So do almost all the SBC seminary presidents.
The rule with SBC faction warfare holds solid: Old Guard guys absolutely never, ever, EVER praise Pretend Progressives. If they dared, they’d get canceled immediately by their faction. Occasionally, I’ve seen Pretend Progressives praise Old Guard people, but never in reverse. This time, though, the Old Guard’s enemies have been radio silent. Only the current president of the SBC, Clint Pressley, has said anything so far. Even then, Pressley offered a single generic mention of praying for Lenow on Twitter/X.
So I can conclude, with ease and perfect safety, that Evan Lenow is an Old Guard guy. He’s not Old Guard quite enough to please the ultra-hardiners in evangelicalism. Some of that crowd consider Richard Land, seriously, Richard Land “an open borders liberal.” However, none of the hardliner sites exploded upon hearing of Lenow’s candidacy or confirmation. They definitely would have done so if he’d been Pretend Progressive. They are never, ever slow to criticize their enemies.
And Evan Lenow being Old Guard matters a lot right now in the SBC.
Retaking the territory with Evan Lenow
Evan Lenow’s appointment marks a significant retaking of territory for the Old Guard.
After Richard Land left-before-getting-kicked-out (ahem, I mean “retired amid great controversy”) in 2013, the ERLC appointed Russell Moore to be its president in 2013. That appointment was, to the Old Guard, an utterly disastrous rebound fling. Most significantly among his transgressions against them, Moore stood vocally against Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 elections—a candidate the Old Guard adored. Worse, he fully supported denominational sex abuse reform efforts and platformed sex abuse survivors. After a lot of trouble and hassle, the Old Guard finally drove Moore out in 2021.
Then, the ERLC hired Brent Leatherwood in 2022. But he turned out to be just as disastrous. He only continued Moore’s projects. After a hilariously hamfisted attempt to unilaterally fire him failed in 2024, Leatherwood finally left in 2025.
All of this is important in SBC politics because for years now, the Old Guard has been trying hard to shut down the ERLC. If it won’t perform the way they like, then they want it gone.
Starting in 2022, defunding/disbanding the ERLC has come up each year at the Annual Meetings as a motion to vote on. That year, Joshua Scruggs called the ERLC “disgraceful” for causing “our divisiveness.” In response, Richard Land stepped in to support his former group, and the motion failed by a wide margin.
In 2024, the motion came up again—and failed, but by smaller margins. That year, the motion came from Tom Ascol, one of the biggest names in the Old Guard’s ultra-hardliner subfaction.
Finally, last year the motion came from Willy Rice, of all people. He’d run for the SBC presidency with some Pretend Progressive support, but Tom Buck betrayed him, destroying his chances. But nonetheless, Rice presented the motion to abolish the ERLC. At the time, he cited concerns about funding from “outside progressive advocacy groups.” The motion failed—but by even less of a margin.
To disband an SBC entity, according to bylaw 25, the motion needs two majority wins over two successive years. So that two-year process never started, but it’s gotten closer and closer each time the Old Guard’s tried it.
I’m guessing we can expect ZERO calls for disbanding the ERLC at this year’s Annual Meeting. A couple of evangelical sites have said as much, like the Illinois Baptists, who wrote: “The possibility of a third vote on abolishing the ERLC seems greatly reduced with Lenow’s election.”
Another hardliner site, Christ Over All, specifically framed the 2025 motion as a way to force the ERLC to make big changes. So they’re probably happy today. Indeed, Evan Lenow’s confirmation should satisfy most of the Old Guard people. He’s got a pedigree they ought to like, and he’s unlikely to cause trouble with the faction’s Trumpist aspirations.
But if not, the Old Guard knows how to send a clear message to their enemies. If they can’t win by persuasion, they’re happy to win by exhausting their opponents.
Hardline conservatism won’t save the SBC, and neither will Evan Lenow
Don’t ask, though, about how any of this savage politicking helps evangelism. Increased recruitment was a major promise during the Conservative Resurgence, but I think even the staunchest hardliner knows nowadays that The Good Ship Evangelistic Success sailed over a decade ago to parts unknown—and won’t ever return.
By almost every one of its own stated goals, the Conservative Resurgence utterly failed. All it actually did for the SBC was drag it firmly rightward culturally, temporarily end the question of female pastors, and permanently chain America’s biggest Protestant denomination to Trumpist politics.
This ERLC appointment of Evan Lenow continues that movement. It seems clear that he was a concession, a sort of olive branch: Not so hardline as to please the ultra-hardliners, but nowhere near Pretend Progressive. He’s neither the savior of Old Guard dreams, nor the bearer of progress that well over half of the flocks want.
I’d love to have been a fly on the wall for the negotiation of his candidacy. It’s a clear message sent to the entire denomination, at least: For the foreseeable future, this is going to be a hard-right, very political, culture-warrior denomination.
This change has the smell of managed decline all over it. Soon, we can expect to get a sneak peek at 2025’s metrics. (The mother ship usually releases these shortly before the Annual Meeting.) I’m expecting continued erosion of membership. And I’m expecting it to continue for a while, as reform-desiring flocks drift out and disaffiliate, both individually and as entire churches.
The SBC seeks to please everyone to keep donations flowing in, but it’s clear they’re still pleasing nobody. If there’s not a Bible verse about that, well, then maybe there should be.
NEXT UP: A Christian claims he’s Christian because atheism couldn’t “answer” various philosophical arguments. We’ll helpfully show him why atheism doesn’t “answer” anything, nor should it—but what actually does matter. See you soon! <3
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